Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. Meddelanden och aktstycken - Dokument till frågan om nattvardsgemenskap med Englands kyrka av N. Söderblom - 3. To the Conference of Bishofs in the Anglican Communion
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376
meddelanden och aktstycken
ministry is instituted jure divino, not even the order and discipline
and state of things recorded in the New Testament, because the
Holy Scriptures, the norma nortnans of the faith of the Church,
are no law, but vindicate for the New Covenant the great principle
of Christian freedom, unweariedly asserted by St. Paul against every
form of legal religion, and applied with fresh strength and clearness
by Luther, but instituted by our Saviour Himself, as, for instance,
when, in taking farewell of His disciples, He did not regulate
their future work by a priori rules and institutions, but directed
them to the guidance of the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost.
»4. The object of any organization and of the whole ministry
being included in the preaching of the Gospel and the administration
of the sacraments — according to the fifth article of the Augustana,
God has instituted ’ministerium docendi evangelii et porrigetidi
sacra-menta’ —• our Church cannot recognize any essential difference,
de jure divino, of aim and authority between the two or three
orders into which the ministry of grace may have been divided,
jure humano, for the benefit and convenience of the Church.
»5. The value of every organization of the ministerium
eccle-siasticum, and of the Church in general, is only to be judged by
its fitness and ability to become a pure vessel for the supernatural
contents, and a perfect channel for the way of Divine Revelation
unto mankind.
»6. That doctrine in no wise makes our Church indifferent to
the organization and the forms of ministry which the cravings and
experiences of the Christian community have produced under the
guidance of the Spirit in the course of history. We do not only
regard the peculiar forms and traditions of our Church with the
reverence due to a venerable legacy from the past, but we realize
in them a blessing from the God of history accorded to us.»
From the conception of our Church regarding the ministry
which has been declared here again, it follows that for us decisive
importance must be attached not to any questions of a more formal
character, but to the question whether and how far the two
communities agree in these ideas as to the content of that message of
salvation, founded on the divine revelation, which has been
committed to both of them. The differences which no doubt can be
found here, must be neither overrated nor underrated. The
difference as to the emphasis laid on the doctrine of ministry, which
has appeared above, might point to a certain discrepancy even in
matters that have a more central position according to our valuation.
Another point which presents itself to the mind when the question
of intercommunion is raised, is the difference which, according to
the confessions of both churches, exists in their conception of the
Lord’s Supper itself. The judgment of the extent of this difference
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